


You're back

by MorningSun



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: F/M, Love Confessions, Reunion Sex, Reunions, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-21
Updated: 2016-01-21
Packaged: 2018-05-15 09:46:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,755
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5781154
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MorningSun/pseuds/MorningSun
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Roy shows up on Oliver's doorstep and Thea finds something she's long been missing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You're back

**Author's Note:**

> Something I wrote after the Flarrow crossover episodes because I was having a particularly unendurable Theroy feels moment. I miss those two and it looks as though I'm not getting them from the writers of the show, so...this is what I did instead.  
> It might not be entirely realistic or likely to happen, but it's love man, it's love ;)  
> random snippets of fluff and romance and feels

“Sooo…you’re back.” Thea chewed on her bottom lip. Roy nodded, but a smile had already started to form in the corners of his lips.

            “What?” she asked him.

            “Nothing.”

            “How have you been?” she tried another of the heavily exhausted catch-up phrases. When all she really wanted to do didn’t involve words at all.

            “Bored.” Roy grinned and Thea chuckled. “Mostly.”

They were in the guest bedroom in Oliver and Felicity’s apartment and it was getting weird. It had been for a long time. Since Roy showed up, to be exact.

            “What about you?”

A shadow came over Thea’s face. She took a deep breath, but didn’t seem to be able to lift her head up and look at him.

            “Thea?”

            “I’m fine…most of the time. I kick ass.”

            “I don’t doubt that.” Roy smiled and Thea made the mistake of looking up because she had really missed seeing him smile. _Seeing him_.

Roy…just standing next to him made her feel safe. Not in a physical sort of way, she was perfectly capable of knocking his socks off, but in a _heart way_. She felt warm. She knew he would understand whatever she had to say to him and there would be no lessons, no questions, no scolding.

She had missed him. Now it seemed somehow more evident.

It had been so long since Thea had…wait. Wait a second.

            “I’m seeing someone.” She told him and felt so bad for having forgotten it. Roy’s smile faltered.

            “That’s good, I guess.”

Roy watched her silently. Thea felt his eyes moving from her hair to her eyes and nose and…lips.

            “Yeah…not exactly.” She thought of almost murdering someone in front of her date and it occurred to her that nothing was good at all.

            “The secret must be hard to keep.” Roy added, but it sounded to Thea more like _you wouldn’t have to hide from me_. And she wanted it so badly. The truth.

Without thinking too much Thea leaned forward and kissed him. Roy was a bit startled at first and Thea started to fear that maybe he didn’t want to. Until he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her closer. A hot wave of shivers ran through her body and she moaned softly. She felt Roy smile against her lips.

He remembered everything like no time had passed. He knew just where to put his lips and trail his fingers. And Thea was struck with the same kind of recollection.

She hadn’t felt so normal in months. It was almost too much to take in.

Roy pulled away a bit and winked.

Thea pulled him into a hug and pressed her chin on his shoulder.

            “I missed you.” She whispered. His hold on her tightened. It felt better than anything she could think off. She hadn’t even thought of killing anybody.

            “I thought about you every day.” Roy confessed.

“Please don’t leave again.”

            “I’ll try.”

 

 

 

***

 

Thea stumbled into the apartment backwards, her fingers trying to get Roy out of his shirt, his fingers bothering with her dress straps.

She couldn’t be happier about Laurel choosing this particular night to visit Sara.

The final button slipped out of its place and Thea sighed with relief. She kissed Roy’s chest and he hummed in approval.

            “Who wears button-ups on a regular day?” Thea hissed. Roy took her face between his hands and kissed her roughly. _Nevermind_.

Thea’s dress fell to the floor and Roy picked her up and trailed kisses from her breasts up to her neck. Thea moaned. He was wrong, though, if he thought he could dominate this…something.

She held onto his shoulders, jumped up and with an elegant flip landed on Roy’s back. She knew he grinned just before he ducked down, swiveled around and caught her a few inches from his face. They were both panting slightly and smiling jokingly.

This was definitely the best part about vigilantism.

Roy kissed her again. This time long and tender, which made Thea dig her fingers into his skin just to hear the moan that escaped his lips.

           

***

 

Roy was lying on Thea’s bed with her by his side and gently brushing his fingers along her upper arm. He thought that falling back to each other so fast probably wasn’t the best idea, or the smartest one. He also couldn’t bring himself to care.

After months of running and starting again and again he finally felt at home.

He didn’t have to pretend or use fake names.

Everyone just knew him.

Thea…he hadn’t manage to get her out of his heart or his brain. He hadn’t even tried.

And he understood why, now, when she was real and warm and beautiful next to him.

He also saw that she wasn’t ok. Something was hiding behind her eyes and it seemed she was afraid of it.

 

***

 

They were walking the city streets and not even talking that much. Roy’s hand was around Thea’s shoulders and she held onto his back.

It turned out to be soothing to just walk at night dressed as normal people and not run around in masks, shooting arrows.

            “I missed not pretending,” Thea said. “It’s like I can finally breathe again.”

            “I know the feeling,” Roy added and squeezed her shoulder.

            “Listen…” she started and decided it would be better if they stopped walking.

Roy looked at her and she smiled to let him know that she was fine, because he had started to look a bit worried.

            “I think we can both agree that we need less of the complicated stuff in our lives right now.”

Roy nodded, not quite sure what was coming.

            “So let’s just agree to be there for each other for the time being. No arguments, labels or trust issues. I know I can trust you, and you know you can trust me. And I don’t want to waste time sitting in the corner when all I want to do is touch you, because _talking_ and _taking it slow_ would be _the right thing_ to do.”

She finished and raised her eyes to his. Roy seemed to be reviewing his options. Thea fought the need to hold her breath.

            “I’m going to need you to reconsider that label part.” He said and smiled at her. Thea pushed him on the chest, Roy caught her arm and pulled her to him.

            “Talking is for the normal people anyway. Our lifestyle is too risky for that kind of waste of time.”

Thea turned and kissed him on his cheek. They were home again.

 

***

 

 

Thea was having one of those terrible nightmares the pit had left her with. Sweat had gathered on her forehead and she was trembling slightly. She must have screamed in her sleep, because Roy opened his eyes and turned to her.

            “Thea?” he asked her, but she didn’t wake up.

His heart rate picked up slightly from seeing her struggling.

            “Thea.” Roy touched her cheek and in that moment Thea’s eyes flew open and she jumped out of the covers with a scream and landed on top of him with her hand around his neck, choking him.

He looked up and it seemed for a second that it wasn’t even her, those wasn’t her eyes. As if something had taken over. And he knew that this was her secret. This was why she wasn’t fine.

Her hold on his neck was incredibly strong. Roy pushed her off him and sat up quickly.

            “Thea!” he screamed and she froze. She was still breathing heavily with her teeth together like an animal’s, but after a second she clasped her mouth with her hand and sunk down on the bed.

            “Roy.” She gasped. “Oh my god.”

He shuffled across the bed and pulled her to him.

            “It’s ok. I’m fine. You had a nightmare.”

            “I wanted to kill you.” She whispered terrified.

            “Wouldn’t be the first time right?” Roy tried to joke, but she didn’t hear it.

Thea didn’t close her eyes that night again. She clutched Roy’s arm to her chest and listen to his breathing as he fell back asleep.

 

***

 

“Hey,” Roy came up to Thea as she was walking out of Palmer Tech.

She had been avoiding him ever since the night she tried to choke him.

            “Hi.” She barely looked at him and didn’t even stop. Roy started walking after her.

            “I thought we could go somewhere tonight, just…”

            “I have a date.”

That was something he hadn’t expected to hear. But he had been through this too many times to be fooled. He had done this to her that time when Oliver first told him that heroes couldn’t have the girl.

She was trying to push him away to protect him.

            “Thea, wait.”

She didn’t.

            “Please.”

Thea kept walking so Roy ran ahead and grabbed her by the arm. She finally turned to him.

            “Stop this, Roy! I made a mistake. I gave in to the memory and I shouldn’t have.” He couldn’t understand if she really meant it.

“Sorry, but the fact that you’re back doesn’t mean that I’m going to throw everything I built while you were gone aside.”

She looked at him sadly and walked away. Roy wanted to leave. Just turn around, go to the train station and leave. She wasn’t the only reason why he had returned, but she could be the only reason why he couldn’t stay.

He sat down on the stone steps and stared at the ground.

After a while a shadow blocked his view and he looked up to see Thea standing next to him. She sat down on his right.

            “I’m sorry.” She sighed. “You didn’t deserve that. Everything is just really complicated right now. And I’m not sure that…” she closed her eyes and wet her lips.

            “I feel normal when I’m with you, like I don’t have to hide anything. But I’m so used to hiding that…”

            “It comes naturally.” Roy offered and Thea smiled.

            “Yes. And everyone knows that it would be extremely shitty to break up with Alex without a reason, but honestly…” she looked at him and he nodded.

            “You don’t have to.”

Thea gave him a look.

            “Then you have to stop seducing me.”

Roy smirked.

            “I’m seducing you?”

            “Well, one of us is, otherwise we wouldn’t end up naked every time we came into a ten meter distance from each other.”

_That was true._

            “Do what you got to do. If he makes you happy…I didn’t exactly announce my arrival.”

Thea grunted in frustration and hid her face in her hands.

“I don’t know. Alex is a cool guy, but the lying and the secrets and the _I might suddenly feel the urge to kill you_ thing. And then I saw you at Ollie’s and I guess I just wanted to let it all go.”       

Roy didn’t blame her. He just hoped he wasn’t holding her back. No, he was most certainly holding her back. That Alex guy was so much better for her.

“Roy.” She put her head on his shoulder.

            “When will we stop running from each other?”

He didn’t have an answer to that.

 

***

 

Today Roy had accidentally bumped into Alex and now he felt not worthy. The suit, the smile, the confidence, the guy was a jackpot. He probably had three degrees by now. He definitely hadn’t spent the majority of his teens stealing to get food. And he knew how to act in any situation.

            “Roy?” Thea found him on a rooftop of a house he had chosen in random. She had probably used Felicity’s help to find him.

            “I’m wasting my life, aren’t I?” he asked her.

            “I have nothing. And I will continue to have nothing.”

            “Hey.” Thea stopped him and squatted down next to where he was sitting.

            “Listen to me.”

Roy unwillingly turned his head. She was as beautiful as ever. He really needed to get going before he dragged her down with him.

            “It’s not too late for you to change something. But you already have something that most of them out there don’t.”

Thea touched his cheek.

            “A good heart.”

            “Last time I checked a good heart doesn’t exactly pay the bills.”

            “If you want to throw yourself a pity party, go ahead. I was trying to be supportive.” She stood up and walked a few steps away from him.

Roy raised his eyebrows. He really had missed her snappy attitude. Which was one more reason not to screw with her future.

            “I really shouldn’t have come back.” He said more to himself.

Thea was too lost to say anything. She turned to him and waited for what was coming.

            “I got it right in the letter. You are much better without me and this right now is not better for anyone.”

            “You also said that you will always love me.” Thea caught Roy’s eyes and he couldn’t escape the expression on her face. He was pissing her off. She was angry, but he knew well enough that under it he had punched her in the gut.

            “I will.”

She huffed and looked up at the sky.

            “I can’t believe this.”

            “I’m sorry.” Roy said.

            “Why did you come back? If you did the right thing, why did you come back?” she turned around, furious.

            “Because, you were right. I was fine all that time. I was. I had so many things on my plate that I had no time to worry about anything else. And when I got them under control I thought maybe I should start seeing someone again and I did. We went on a date and I almost killed a stranger in front of him and I had to make up some stupid excuse. And I was still fine.” She stopped.

            “But you did come back. And I’m not fine anymore.”

Roy’s head snapped to Thea.

            “I’m great.”

He exhaled and looked across the rooftops.

            “Roy.” Thea raised her voice and waited for him to look her way. She came back to him.

            “I don’t know why it is so hard for you to wrap your mind around this, but I love you too. And I would have stopped when you left if I knew how, but I don’t. Every time I get close to you it all just falls back in its place. I love you.” She got to his eye level and touched his cheek.

Roy closed his eyes.

            “You’re making it really hard for me.”

            “I’m making it easy.”

            “I don’t want to hold you back.”

            “I’d like to see you try.” Thea moved closer. Roy attempted to back away.

            “I’m still a ninja.” She reminded him.

            “Is that a threat?”

            “Yes.”

He barely smiled.

            “I don’t think you get this.” Thea sighed.

            “I don’t need you to worry about one possible scenario for the future. I won’t let you. Think of something else you could wrack your brain about.”

Roy had been staring in the distance for the past five minutes. He finally really looked at Thea.

            “I’m going back to school.” He told her. “I started looking at universities a few months ago and I found something that I could afford if I used all my savings and got another job, or two…”

Thea smiled slowly and then all at once.

            “You are a mystery, Roy Harper.” She sat next to him and they both looked at the city beneath them.

            “I feel like a joke for even trying.”

            “Idiot.”

 

***

 

He kept planting little kisses on her shoulder and neck and the corner of her lips and Thea couldn’t stop smiling. She turned slightly and caught his lips.

Roy was every bit as wonderful as she remembered. Even more now that he was taking her mind off killing people.

She wanted to kiss him more than she wanted to rip his throat out and that was a nice feeling.

            “Do we have to go save the city tonight?” Roy asked her playfully while trailing his fingers up her bare side. _No, no they didn’t_.

He kissed her neck and she inhaled sharply.

            “Yes.” Thea managed to breathe out.

            “Yeah, I thought so.” Roy grinned and she kissed him deeply with hands in his hair.

 

***

 

Thea was showering when a sudden realization hit her. She stopped the water and got out of the cabin and wrapped a towel around her chest.

Roy was sitting on the coutch, reading a book and not paying any attention to the TV.

When she entered the room he looked up with a raised eyebrow.

            “ _Oh please_.” Thea smiled and came closer to him. Roy grinned and gestured for her to come sit at his side.

            “I just had a thought.” Thea settled in beside him.

            “We are really growing up.”

Roy looked up from his book.

            “Remember how you stole my purse?”

Roy closed his eyes in shame.

            “Yeah.”

            “And how you got injected with the Mirakuru?”

            “I acted like a moron.”

            “And I was so oblivious to everything for years.” Thea exhaled.

            “I really thought I knew how the world worked.” Roy looked at her.

            “Turns out, I didn’t know shit.”

Thea leaned in kissed Roy on the cheek.

            “See? We are growing up. We’re not the stupid kids anymore. So you should stop worrying about making mistakes. You’re not the same guy you were four years ago.”

            “Thank you.” Roy smiled at her, but he couldn’t help but notice how inviting the skin of her bare shoulder was. He put his book down and turned.

            “Remember when you found me at the repair shop?”

            “Yes, Jason.” Thea laughed while Roy pulled her in his lap.

           

***

 

            “Do you think they’ll be alright?” Thea asked Roy while they were playing Scrabble after the semi-disastrous dinner at Oliver’s. Roy looked up from his board and sighed.

            “I think so. Oliver has been through a lot. They both need time to figure things out.”

Thea rolled her eyes.

            “Oliver also needs to let loose sometimes. He just thinks that he’s this almighty hero who can’t ever let his guard down. And if he’ll screw up the sanest relationship he’s ever had, I’ll be very _unhappy_.”

Roy smiled at her. He hoped Oliver and Felicity could work things out somehow. He also knew that sometimes it was difficult to overcome experiences from the past and Oliver seemed to have many of those.

            “All of a sudden he has a son of whom he doesn’t tell Felicity.” She took a bite of her cheese pizza, taking the slice from the coffee table.

            “And that he does after he promised her there would be no more secrets.”

Roy looked at her in amusement.

            “How do you even know that?”

A teasing smile appeared on Thea’s face.

            “It’s your turn.” He told her and she eagerly took the tiny squares in her hand and placed them on the board.

            “A-R-S-E-N-A-L. Two double letter scores and a triple word score. _Boom_!”

Roy looked at her and bent his head to the side. Thea winked at him.

            “Was that your plan all along?” he asked her. Thea crawled closer to where he was sitting on the carpet.

            “Maybe.” She teased, inches from his face. With every bit of willpower he had, Roy managed to pretend he was very interested in figuring out his next move in the game.

            “Oh, you’re good.” Thea grabbed his chin and kissed him. He was glad she had persuaded him to stay. It really didn’t take much when it was Thea.

He kept her close for a second more.

            Thea’s lips were parted in the most wonderful of ways.

Roy kissed her again. They had nowhere to go tonight so neither of them felt the need to rush it. When his blood was close to boiling and setting his skin on fire, Thea pulled away and Roy couldn’t help feeling a tiny bit disappointed.

            She pressed her head to his.

            “Would you tell me if you had a son who’s mother banned you from telling anyone?”

            “Are you seriously asking me that?”

            “Yes.”

            “I don’t think it’s fair for me to answer.”

Thea’s eyes were piercing his.

            “Oliver had his reasons to do what he did. Maybe he was afraid of losing her or never getting to know his son.”

            “How would Samantha ever find out that Felicity knew?”

Roy thought about it and it did seem unlikely. He sighed.

            “I would tell you. I have always thought that lies never bring anything good. Oliver barely kept me from telling you the first time we started training together.”

            “Did he.” Thea rolled her eyes. “Doesn’t surprise me.”

            “He was right back then.” Roy said.

            “Yes. But he is not right this time.”

            “No, he isn’t.” Roy agreed and Thea kissed him quickly.

            “Thank you for telling me about your imaginary lost son.”

            “You’re welcome.”

Thea put her head on Roy’s shoulder and let him hold her close.

            “Don’t think I forgot that you didn’t write down my score.” She added and he chuckled.

 

***

 

Thea woke up in the middle of the night and the spot next to her on the bed was empty. Her heart plummeted. She remembered the last time this had happened and she had been left with a letter and months of not seeing Roy.

She sat up and looked around. This couldn’t be it. She searched the nearby table with her eyes but there was no letter on it.

There was a click in the kitchen and after a second Roy emerged from the hallway with a glass of water.

Thea looked at him with creased forehead and her lips slightly parted.

            “What?” he asked her, oblivious. He was standing in the middle of the room in his gray sweatpants and obviously not going anywhere.

            “I thought that you had disappeared again.”

Roy grinned.

            “Yeah, I’m not that much of a jerk. I’ll tip you off this time.”

Thea nodded. She hoped this _next time_ wouldn’t come for a long time.

Roy drank his water and came back to bed. He put his hand around Thea and she rested her cheek on his skin.

            “You scared me.”

            “I imagine it was still less scary than the time you tried to choke me.”

            “Ha ha.”

He kissed her head and for a while didn’t let go. Thea drew circles on his chest.

Roy wasn’t going anywhere, but somehow she felt that this time when he did she would leave with him.

 

 


End file.
